diff --git a/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/zeppelin/spark/PySparkInterpreter.java b/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/zeppelin/spark/PySparkInterpreter.java
index 420ebd5fda9..2bc895003e6 100644
--- a/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/zeppelin/spark/PySparkInterpreter.java
+++ b/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/zeppelin/spark/PySparkInterpreter.java
@@ -430,13 +430,13 @@ public List<InterpreterCompletion> completion(String buf, int cursor) {
       statementSetNotifier.notify();
     }
 
+    String[] completionList = null;
     synchronized (statementFinishedNotifier) {
       long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
       while (statementOutput == null
-        && pythonScriptInitialized == false
         && pythonscriptRunning) {
         try {
-          if (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime < MAX_TIMEOUT_SEC * 1000) {
+          if (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime > MAX_TIMEOUT_SEC * 1000) {
             logger.error("pyspark completion didn't have response for {}sec.", MAX_TIMEOUT_SEC);
             break;
           }
@@ -447,16 +447,20 @@ public List<InterpreterCompletion> completion(String buf, int cursor) {
           return new LinkedList<>();
         }
       }
+      if (statementError) {
+        return new LinkedList<>();
+      }
+      InterpreterResult completionResult;
+      completionResult = new InterpreterResult(Code.SUCCESS, statementOutput);
+      Gson gson = new Gson();
+      completionList = gson.fromJson(completionResult.message(), String[].class);
     }
+    //end code for completion
 
-    if (statementError) {
+    if (completionList == null) {
       return new LinkedList<>();
     }
-    InterpreterResult completionResult = new InterpreterResult(Code.SUCCESS, statementOutput);
-    //end code for completion
 
-    Gson gson = new Gson();
-    String[] completionList = gson.fromJson(completionResult.message(), String[].class);
     List<InterpreterCompletion> results = new LinkedList<>();
     for (String name: completionList) {
       results.add(new InterpreterCompletion(name, name));
diff --git a/spark/src/test/java/org/apache/zeppelin/spark/PySparkInterpreterTest.java b/spark/src/test/java/org/apache/zeppelin/spark/PySparkInterpreterTest.java
index 401e0fd463c..6a60fef7d77 100644
--- a/spark/src/test/java/org/apache/zeppelin/spark/PySparkInterpreterTest.java
+++ b/spark/src/test/java/org/apache/zeppelin/spark/PySparkInterpreterTest.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 import org.apache.zeppelin.interpreter.InterpreterOutputListener;
 import org.apache.zeppelin.interpreter.InterpreterOutput;
 import org.apache.zeppelin.interpreter.InterpreterResult;
+import org.apache.zeppelin.interpreter.thrift.InterpreterCompletion;
 import org.apache.zeppelin.resource.LocalResourcePool;
 import org.apache.zeppelin.user.AuthenticationInfo;
 import org.junit.After;
@@ -37,6 +38,7 @@
 import java.io.File;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.LinkedList;
+import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Properties;
 
 import static org.junit.Assert.*;
@@ -144,4 +146,11 @@ public void testBasicIntp() {
     }
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void testCompletion() {
+    if (getSparkVersionNumber() > 11) {
+      List<InterpreterCompletion> completions = pySparkInterpreter.completion("sc.", "sc.".length());
+      assertTrue(completions.size() > 0);
+    }
+  }
 }